1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of interactive voice response (IVR) services. More particularly, the present invention relates to configuring a dynamic interactive voice architecture (DIVA) based on customer needs without affecting the underlying computer programming.
2. Background Information
Telecommunications service providers offer interactive voice response (IVR) services that generally provide a series of automated voice menus corresponding to their customers' businesses, and execute additional menus or various applications in response to voice menu selections. For example, the applications may include prerecorded announcements or information, call transfers, automated transactions, and the like. An IVR service for a particular customer is accessible to callers dialing a telephone number assigned to the customer, connecting the caller to an IVR platform. The callers select options from the menus using the keypad of conventional dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) telephones. The callers navigate among the menus and applications until the service requests are complete, at which point the calls are terminated.
An IVR service offered by a telecommunications service provider is often called upon to handle automated applications from a variety of customer businesses. For example, the same service provider may provide IVR services for banks, hospitals and retail stores using the same IVR platform. In order to accommodate the needs of various customers, it is desirable for the service provider to appropriately tailor each IVR service application. Although conventional IVR services enable minor changes to the functionality, such as recording and changing actual voice announcements, more significant changes, such as adding and deleting menus, menu items and associated functionality, require alteration of the underlying source code used to program the IVR.
Changing the source code of an IVR to implement a new application is inefficient and generally undesirable. Such reprogramming requires the skills of an experienced, technically adept IVR programmer. Much of the source code of a new application duplicates preexisting source code, but any changes are developed from scratch and therefore untested. The modified source code thus requires testing and debugging before being placed in service, causing delay in implementation.
Conventional IVR services offer some limited solutions for limited customization. For example, an IVR service may access a variety of prepackaged programs that function based on applications separate from the IVR application. However, the prepackaged programs are ordinarily cannot be configured to operate within the same IVR application and cannot be modified short of reprogramming the IVR application source code or the prepackaged program source code. Again, such reprogramming requires a relatively labor intensive undertaking by the service provider to meet the customer's needs.